Obama: Diversity of staff 'one of my highest priorities'

1/30/13 8:28 PM EST

President Obama sees bringing a diverse set of staffers into his administration as a key part of his legacy, he said Wednesday.

"One of my highest priorities as an administration, particularly in my second term, because now I’m thinking about legacy, is to make sure that we are identifying talent from every walk of life, from every ethnic group, so that the next president will see how big a pool there is of talent out there, that can serve and wants to serve in a presidential administration," he said in an interview with Univision.

"We’re going to redouble our efforts to recruit talented and gifted Latinos that come from every walk of life. It comes from academia, it comes from elected officials. It comes from foundations and non-for profits," he said, adding a nod to his interviewer: "Maybe some will come from the media."

As he has in recent weeks, Obama refuted claims that his recent nominations and appointments haven't been sufficiently diverse, and offered a wait-and-see defense.

"Well, first of all, we haven’t completed the formation of my Cabinet. So I’ll let people judge it after all my appointments have been made whether or not we’ve made progress," he said.